[AG-TECH] XAP setup - urgent
George Estes
gestes at ncsa.uiuc.edu
Fri Feb 18 08:57:36 CST 2005
Jason,
Which mic are you using for the ceiling mounted mic's? It seems as though two ceiling mounted mic's for 6-8 people would result in a lot of ambient room noise being picked up and sent to the Access Grid. I don't know about you but our rooms are standard conference/meeting rooms with lots of ambient noise, ie. hvac, laptop fans, PC fan noise (our AG nodes machines are in the same room), projector fans, paper shuffling, etc..
George
At 09:55 AM 2/18/2005 +1000, you wrote:
>G'day All
>
>I hope you don't mind, but I will put my 2 cents worth here.
>
>I actually disagree with having to add more mic's to support all of the
>users, etc. We currently have 4 microphones (2 desktop and 2 ceiling
>mounts mic's) which have supported up to 20 people for a single
>AccessGrid meeting.
>
>Our other AccessGrid, which only has 2 ceiling mounted mic's regularly
>supports 6-8 people.
>
>But no matter how well you design your AccessGrid and placement of your
>mic's, the more aggressive (louder) speakers will generally sit near at
>the front where the mic's are placed and the quite speakers will sit out
>the back.
>
>I believe that this isn't really a technological problem, but rather a
>human nature problem. I find that getting the users of the AccessGrid
>to interact during the meeting and asking the speakers to raise there
>voice works the best.
>
>Alternatively, by moving the mic's away from the speakers and increasing
>the gain will give better coverage.
>
>As a last note, I totally agree with the statement "for the tech to
>vanish...", as generally once I have setup a AG session, I walk away and
>only come back to shut the system down. Once you have you level
>configured correctly, you shouldn't have to play with them much at all.
>
>I hope this makes some sense.
>
>Cheers,
>Jason.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------
>Jason Bell, B.I.T.
>B. Info. Tech. (Honours) Student
>
>Network Engineer
>Information Technology Division
>Central Queensland University
>
>High Performance Computing Support Officer
>Central Queensland University
>
>Research Assistant to the Nonlinear Intelligent Systems Research Group
>Faculty of Informatics & Communication
>Central Queensland University
>
>E-mail : j.bell at cqu.edu.au
>Phone : 07 4930 9229
>
>--------------------------------------------
>
>Patience is a virtue.
>But if I wanted Patience,
>
>I would have become a Doctor.
>--------------------------------------------
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On
>Behalf Of Tom Coffin
>Sent: Friday, 18 February 2005 09:13
>To: Natalia Costas Lago
>Cc: natalia at cesga.es; Paul.Kuchar at manchester.ac.uk; ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov;
>vgoya at uvigo.es; raul at scom.uminho.pt;
>=?iso-8859-1?Q?Am=E2ndio?=@cesga.es; amandio at scom.uminho.pt;
>mquintas at uvigo.es; ccaride at uvigo.es; gcastro at uvigo.es; nlopez at cesga.es;
>tech.support at clearone.com
>Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] XAP setup - urgent
>
>
>You may need to increase the number of microphones
>in your setup. For 6-8 people we use a minimum of 4 (crown)
>table top mics.
>
>
>________________________________________________
>At 04:39 PM 2/17/2005, Natalia Costas Lago wrote:
>
>
>>mmm.... that doesnt seem to be an acceptable solution for us.
>>
>>What I have experienced in our meetings is that we can have up to 6-8
>>people talking to 2 supercardioid microphones and each of them speak at
>a
>>different level. It is too hard (impossible) for a tech to try to
>adjust
>>the level each time any of them speak (sometimes some of them at the
>same
>>time :)))).
>>
>>I recall a sentence I read in one of those accessgrid papers... "for
>the
>>tech to vanish...". That's what we want, the less a tech has to care
>about
>>the better. I think the XAP should be able to do AGC (automatic gain
>>control) if it is set properly. We do not have problems with noise
>level
>>increase if there is a proper threshold set, maybe.. do some other
>>problems appear?.
>>
>>Personally, what I get out of my experience is that I rather prefer our
>>system after enabling the AGC than before. But I think our settings can
>be
>>improved, that's why I am cc'ing clearone tech staff, they are the ones
>>who can tell us what we can get out of the XAP.
>>
>>
>>
>> >
>> > We run into people with different speaking levels
>> > a lot during meetings here at ACCESS. The way we handle it
>> > is to try and identify a microphone for the soft spoken speaker
>> > and boost the fine gain control for it using gware.
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > At 12:16 PM 2/17/2005, Natalia Costas Lago wrote:
>> >>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o =
>> >>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w =
>> >>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1 =
>> >>"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags">
>> >>
>> >>Hi Paul,
>> >>
>> >>I think we do really need the AGC settings, the audio levels are
>> >>uncontrolled without it. We avoid echo issues with them, maybe do
>you
>> >>use the Compressor feature?.
>> >>
>> >>There is some trouble with people that speak louder or lower. I
>think
>> >>there has to be a right way to set it...
>> >>I am CC'ing clearone tech guys, maybe they have some advice?
>> >>
>> >>Kind regards,
>> >>Natalia.
>> >>
>> >>----- Original Message -----
>> >>From: <mailto:Paul.Kuchar at manchester.ac.uk>Paul Kuchar
>> >>To: <mailto:natalia at cesga.es>'Natalia Costas Lago'
>> >>Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 5:54 PM
>> >>Subject: RE: [AG-TECH] XAP setup - urgent
>> >>
>> >>Dear Natalia,
>> >>We advise AG nodes to use the default value of OFF for AGC/SL as
>trying
>> >>to configure it causes all kinds of strange audio noises.
>> >>
>> >>This is also the advice from inSORS.
>> >>
>> >>AGC tries to control the gain and SL expands the sound of anything
>> >>quiet. Unless you make any progress with the parameters, try
>switching
>> >>AGC/SL off.
>> >>
>> >>Regards,
>> >>Paul Kuchar, AGSC
>> >>Collaborative Working Developments
>> >>===============================
>> >>Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building
>> >>University of Manchester, M13 9PL,
>> >>United Kingdom
>> >>===============================
>> >>Tel: +44(0)161-275 0668
>> >>Fax: +44(0)161-275 6800 / 6040
>> >>Email:
>> >><mailto:Paul.Kuchar at manchester.ac.uk>Paul.Kuchar at manchester.ac.uk
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>----------
>> >>From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov]
>On
>> >>Behalf Of Natalia Costas Lago
>> >>Sent: 17 February 2005 16:25
>> >>To: ag-tech
>> >>Subject: [AG-TECH] XAP setup - urgent
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Dear all,
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>We are quite in an emergency: our inauguration is about to happen
>(25th
>> >> february). And we still have too many audio problems. I've followed
>> >>some advices given here and given by te people from clearone and
>they
>> >>helped us to understand the proceedings to configure the XAP
>settings.
>> >>However there are some issues still. I hope someone out there with
>> >>much experience in this equipment (and in audio systems) could help
>> >>us:
>> >>
>> >>- We would like to know how to set the best AGC parameters (most
>> >>importance) and Gating parameters. I think proper AGC settings would
>> >>solve a big part of our problems.
>> >>- The group the mics belong is set to none, I hope this involves
>only
>> >>gating issues (we want to hear whatever speaker wanna say, so we are
>> >>not interested in priority of one mic over another mic). May we
>have
>> >>any problems derived from this point?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>Any help is greatly appreciated.
>> >>
>> >>Thanx a lot.
>> >>Kind regards.
>> >>
>> >>Natalia.
>> >>
>> >>-----------------------------------
>> >>Natalia Costas Lago
>> >>email: <mailto:natalia at cesga.es>natalia at cesga.es
>> >>
>> >>Centro de Supercomputacion de Galicia (CESGA)
>> >>Avenida de Vigo, s/n Campus Sur
>> >>15706 Santiago de Compostela - SPAIN
>> >>Tel: +34 981 56 98 10
>> >>Fax: +34 981 59 46 16
>> >><http://www.cesga.es/>http://www.cesga.es/
>> >
>> >
>> > ___________________________________________________________
>> > Tom Coffin .......................... tcoffin at ncsa.uiuc.edu
>> >
>> > NCSA-ACCESS cel: 703-477-5948
>> > 901 North Stuart Street, #800 tel: 703-248-0105
>> > Arlington, Virginia 22203 fax: 703-248-0100
>> >
>> > _________________________ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~tcoffin
>>
>>
>>
>>-----------------------------------
>>Natalia Costas Lago
>>mailto: natalia at cesga.es
>>
>>Centro de Supercomputacion de Galicia (CESGA)
>>Avenida de Vigo, s/n Campus Sur
>>15705 Santiago de Compostela - SPAIN
>>Tel: +34 981 56 98 10
>>Fax: +34 981 59 46 16
>>http://www.cesga.es/
>
>
>___________________________________________________________
>Tom Coffin .......................... tcoffin at ncsa.uiuc.edu
>
> NCSA-ACCESS cel: 703-477-5948
> 901 North Stuart Street, #800 tel: 703-248-0105
> Arlington, Virginia 22203 fax: 703-248-0100
>
>_________________________ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~tcoffin
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